Nepal - “Shot like enemies”

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

Today's episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a podcast from NerdWallet.

Do you have a friend who treats airfare like a puzzle and somehow always ends up with a first class

upgrade? Smart Travel is like that friend, minus the group text. NerdWallet's travel journalist

break down the pros and cons of travel decisions, like when lounge access is worth paying for,

and which hotel loyalty programs actually pay off. Make your travel dollars work harder.

Follow Smart Travel on your favourite podcast app. Investing with Schwab is like a hike,

with endless trails that get you to the same beautiful sunset.

Go solo with self-directed investing. Choose a guide with full service wealth management.

Or take stops along the way, with trading, automated investing and planning for college or retirement.

Schwab gives you the map and the gear, all in one place.

No matter which trails you take, you can invest your way, with Schwab.

Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

I'm Sabina Shrestha, on assignment in Nepal.

This is the sound of 17-year-old Shri Amchalagai from Nepal,

playing with his dog, Jojo.

The teenager, known as Banco, to his family, was curious about the world.

Here is his mother, Ganga Galki.

My son was so clever, he was so curious. I tell him that being overly inquisitive

wouldn't end well for him, but he needed to investigate everything. He was not afraid to speak up.

Worried about his determination, his mother once consulted an astrologer,

a common practice in Nepal, for families seeking guidance about the future.

Here is Ganga Galki.

The astrologer told me that he would join the government.

And also that he'd work with guns. Perhaps the army, he said.

I would tell my son to join the government after finishing school.

His father, Ganesh Shalagai, thought the police might suit him better.

But Shri Amchal had his own ideas about everything, especially about politics.

When I tell him my opinion on the news, he'd interject.

He'd say the country was in peril and corruption had hollered it out.

He followed countless new sources, without my knowing. He was far more informed than I was.

On September 8, 2025, Shri Amchal's mum, that he wanted to join other young people,

or Gen Z, to protest against corruption. Ganga Galki was worried.

I told him not to go. Things can happen at these protests.

But he said, it's for the Gen Z youth, I'll be in my uniform.

As we are miners, nobody will do anything to us.

Shri Amchal went in his school uniform, carrying his school bag.

He never returned home. He was shot in the back of the head by the police.

He died of his injuries.

According to official figures, 19 Nepalis were killed in the protest on September 8.

A further 300 were injured.

Anger at these deaths ignited a second day of protest, and this time it could not be contained.

By the end of the second day, the government had fallen, and the army was called in to calm the streets.

Nepal has held a historic election, one that has toppled the old political

guard and swept a new generation of leaders into power, many backed by Gen Z voters.

So how did this political upheaval unfold?

I am Sabina Shreshta, and I'm piecing together a forensic account of the most dramatic two days

in Nepal's recent history.

Drawing on more than 4,000 videos filmed on the streets,

testimony from police and protesters, and an exclusive leaked record of police radio

for BBCI and assignment, we reveal how Nepal authorities lost control of this protest.

And ask, did Nepal's police, army and politicians fail a generation?

Desperate for change.

So what feel the anger felt by young people in Nepal ahead of the protest?

Nepal lies between India and China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region,

and is home to some of the highest mountains on earth.

Until 1951, the country remained largely close to the outside world.

After a decade-long conflict known as the Nepalese Civil War,

Nepal abolished its monarchy in 2008 and became a republic.

In 2015, a new constitution promised a fresh start, but 10 years on,

that promise has yet to be realized.

More than half of its population of around 30 million are under the age of 30.

One in five young Nepalese are unemployed.

For millions, migration has become the only option.

The country remains baddened by debt and economic dependence.

On the face of things, governments shifted between the three main political parties,

but for many young Nepalese, the same group of elderly politicians clung to power,

year after year.

26-year-old Rakhshaban is one of the many Gen Z students who feel democracy has fallen short.

Our generation was exasperated by the behavior of leaders who been here forever.

They never tried to understand the voices on the streets.

In recent years in the United States, the term Nepal babies had gained traction online,

criticizing celebrity children's scene as benefiting from inherited privilege rather than merit.

In the Philippines, young activists adopted the same phrase,

channeling public anger at children of powerful officials,

especially those connected to corruption scandals.

The global Nepo baby trend came to Nepal.

Hundreds of posts spread online, sharing images and videos of politicians' children,

displaying luxury goods, expensive outfits, handbags and high end trips abroad.

They showed the difference between the lifestyles of the politicians and their families,

and normal people.

It provoked an angry response online, in both Nepalese and English.

We wake up, work hard, pay taxes, but those in power, they keep on stealing.

It is time we call out these people and make these people feel accountable for their choices.

That message struck a chord with millions of young people,

including 17-year-old student Shri Omchalagai, who joined the debate on social media.

On the 4th of September, alarmed by the scale of dissent voiced online,

the government took a drastic decision.

It shut down access to a number of social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube,

Instagram, X, LinkedIn, WhatsApp.

But people were getting around the block by using VPNs.

They were shocked at being censored.

The platform is all gone.

We have so many problems in Nepal, but they think,

yeah, there's a list of bad social media.

You're not going to fix the country.

Why are these idiots one in the country?

But in the halls of power,

Nepal's political establishment was in a state of denial.

Prime Minister Kebi Sharma Ali justified the social media shutdown at an event.

Are we estranged from the people?

Do people no longer support us?

The truth is, we are at the center of hope for the people.

Even as speeches went on, the ground was shifting.

Despite the government ban, Gen Z found other platforms,

like Discord and TikTok to share hashtags and memes,

channeling their anger of a corruption and poor governance.

Within days, plans for a nationwide protest

were circulating on the messaging platform Discord.

Thousands of people joined the server or group,

youths against corruption.

It emerged as the central hub for coordination and discussion.

Organizers agree on a meeting point.

9 a.m. Mythigar Mandala, a junction in the centre of Kathmandu

in the country's capital.

It was the morning of September 8, 2025.

Raksha was filmed speaking on the front line.

We are not going to damage state property.

We will raise our voice in peace.

Are we already for the protest?

At around 1030, the crowd moved forward,

a long-mother Mandali road.

Government intelligence had predicted 3,000 protestors,

but tens of thousands turned out.

Many were wearing school uniform,

believing it might offer a kind of protection.

The protesters headed for Nepal's parliament,

but before they got there, they met with the police barricade.

Some 200 police were now face-to-face with thousands of protestors,

and the mood started to turn.

At 1147, a group of demonstrators found a way around the

cordon, the police taken by surprise abandoned the barricade,

and the crowd surged towards parliament.

The organizers had called for a peaceful protest,

but already this was getting out of hand.

The tragedy that followed was captured in more than 4,000 videos and pictures taken

by journalists, bystanders and protestors.

We spent months collecting and analysing this evidence,

as well as sourcing exclusive accounts from police.

We can now bring you the most detailed account yet of exactly what happened on September 8th,

at the gates of Nepal's parliament.

At 1158, protestors faced off against armed police.

Most of the crowd was peaceful, but at the front line, tensions spilled into violence.

Some protestors climb onto the roof of the entrance gate to parliament.

At 1215, one group breached the wall.

They were quickly pushed back by police.

On two squirts, some protestors started to worry.

What we planned to stay outside, and why did we break down the barricade?

Looking at online footage of the crowd, we spotted 17-year-old Shriam in his school uniform,

here against his mother's wishes.

He's holding a banner that reads,

feuds against corruption, but not everyone was peaceful.

At 1230, a curfew has declared, the gathering now became illegal.

But the curfew seemed to make things worse.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Their response was chaotic.

Some even threw stones back at protestors.

Seeing the gatehouse on fire, panicked officers,

radioed for help, asking the superiors for permission to use live ammunition.

We know this because the BBC has obtained a leaked police radio log of that day.

This document has never been made public.

It reveals that it's now at 1240,

that the authorization to deploy necessary force is given.

That order marked a turning point.

Shots were fired, and over the next few hours, a number of protestors died.

On Discord, news of live fire spread quickly.

They're firing real bullets.

Real bullets, guys.

They're using real bullets now.

And on the street, anger escalated to fury.

The police were overwhelmed.

One group was cornered outside the gates.

At 142, our police timeline records the panic among officers.

Police bleeding profusely and about to be killed,

shooting at main gate may be necessary.

Eventually, they used tear gas to drive back the crowd

and retreated into the grounds of parliament.

Here is flogger, Sunjeev Jung Chetri.

He's filming himself at the protest.

People wanted a revolution for change,

but there's been a shower of bullets.

We don't know how many have died.

At the same time, watching the state of the police, I feel sorry for them.

The next order to come through police radio is unambiguous.

Open fire to establish safety, regain control of situation.

By 148, multiple people were getting shot.

By this time, accounts on discord were urging demonstrators to leave.

But 24-year-old Sula Vrashresha stayed at the parliament gates.

He was carrying a sign that read no more corruption.

Seconds later, flogger, Sunjeev films him, bleeding on the floor.

Look at this. Sula was dead.

It's just too much. Way too much.

Realising that he could not be saved, protestors carried Sulav to the gates of the parliament.

They lay his body on the road, directly in front of the police.

And covered it in Nepal's flag.

Among those who witnessed the shooting was 17-year-old Shri Omcholagai, the boy in school uniform.

I had of him a group of protestors belted the police with stones.

Shri Om turned from the violence and moved away from the parliament.

These were the last steps he took.

He was shot in the back of the head.

The footage of Shri Om being shot went viral across Nepal.

By the time he arrived at the National Trauma Centre,

Shri Omcholagai was dead.

He was the youngest victim shot outside parliament on September 8th.

An analysis of footage by the BBC found no evidence that either Sulav or Shri Omcholagai were involved

in violent acts.

According to official figures, 19 Nepalis were killed in the protest on September 8th.

A further 300 were injured.

This is the documentary from the BBC World Service.

So you're running out of closet space.

The good news?

You don't need to stop shopping.

You just need to start selling, with the real real.

The real real is the world's largest and most trusted resource for authenticated luxury resale.

Whether it's that mini bag that can't even fit your phone,

or those boots you never fully broke in.

The real real handles everything, from photography and copywriting,

to shipping and pricing.

So you can just sit back, get paid,

and make room for things that actually feel like you.

And with 10,000 plus new arrivals every single day,

from top designers like Prada, Selene, Louis Vuitton, and Louis Vé,

all for up to 90% off retail.

You're bound to find something perfectly on brand to fill that extra closet space with.

Plus, right now, you can get an extra $100 to shop when you sell for the first time.

Make room for what feels like you.

Go to therealreal.com to start selling and get your extra $100 to keep shopping

at therealreal.com.

That's therealreal.com, Terms Apply.

Finding great candidates to hire can be like, well,

trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Sure, you can post your job to some job board,

but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along,

which is why you should try Zippercrooter for free.

At zippercrooter.com slash zipp.

Zippercrooter doesn't depend on candidates finding you.

It finds them for you.

It's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience

and actively invites them to apply to your job.

You get qualified candidates fast.

So, while other companies might deliver a lot of,

hey, Zippercrooter, find you what you're looking for.

The needle in the haystack.

See why four out of five employers who post a job on Zippercrooter

get a quality candidate within the first day?

Zippercrooter, the smartest way to hire.

And right now, you can try Zippercrooter for free.

That's right, free at zippercrooter.com slash zipp.

That zippercrooter.com slash zipp.

Zippercrooter.com slash zipp.

Momentum doesn't appear overnight.

It's built, refined, repeated.

Puerto Rico understands momentum.

As companies rethink supply chains and restore operations,

they're choosing a location that already delivers

life-saving medicines, advanced manufacturing,

and global scale innovation.

As a U.S. jurisdiction operating under federal law,

with competitive tax incentives designed for long-term investment,

companies don't just relocate here.

They scale here.

Not culture or business.

Culture and business.

Puerto Rico.

It's not what's next.

It's where.

Visit investpr.org forward slash business.

I'm Sabina Shresha on assignment in Nepal.

So how did the police come to open fire on their own citizens?

According to our police sources and the leaked transcript,

the order came through police radio from someone who used the call sign Kilo1.

One source told us.

Some of us were badly hurt.

One of us asked to be rescued.

Kilo1 orders us to shoot.

Kilo1 was the call sign of Bhishwadi Kari,

the officer in charge of Nepal police operations in Kathmandu that day.

But Kilo1 was not at the top of the chain of command.

The police log reveals that the first order to use force came from a more senior officer

using the call sign Peter1.

An order attributed to him in the log says.

Carp you already in place.

No further need to obtain permission.

Deploy necessary force.

Peter1 was Chandrakubir Kapu,

Nepal's most senior officer, the Inspector General of Police.

He has denied accountability.

Nepal police told us that decision to use force came from a committee made up of Nepal's main security forces.

They said that Kapu's decision came after the committee's decision.

Other police officers have admitted to failures in intelligence, training and direction.

They also blame the army for failing to support them.

But most are haunted by what happened.

Another police source told us.

Later that day, Shri Amstad Ganesh got a call.

No parent wants to get telling him that his son was at the trauma center.

When I arrived there was a crowd, a big crowd next to the gate and I went over to check it.

And there was a list of names pinned to the gate.

It was a list of names of the dead.

The first name I saw was my sons.

As soon as I went home my wife asked me,

he went to get our son.

Where is Banco?

I said he's been hurt.

They're treating him.

She asked me why did you leave him alone?

I was buying time.

I was broken.

But despite the deaths, the Prime Minister dug his heels in.

Here is an exchange with Prithvisa Baggeru, the Minister for Communication.

There has been a demand for the resignation of the Prime Minister.

You can't make such demands from the street, the Prime Minister will not resign.

On discord, frustration quickly turned incendiary.

Some users call for the country to be burned down.

Others called for violent attacks against police.

This is protester Rakhshabam again.

All night long, I waited for dawn to break.

My whole being ached to stand against the state and the choices it had made.

As dawn broke on September 9th, the fury among the protesters ignited it.

I've not been able to sleep all night thinking about all those children who were killed.

These leaders should be killed.

Is it acceptable to kill children?

At first Nepal's authorities had a plan.

Regular police units would contain the crowds backed by the armed police force

with the army held in reserve.

Security forces were deployed in and around the parliamentary complex.

By 8.30 a.m., another curfew was imposed.

But the crowds did not back down.

Again, Rakhshabam was among them.

She was filming as she went.

You cannot kill your own people.

You can't. You can't.

On her phone, you can hear her protest.

We're outside the parliament.

Gunshots have started.

By 9, things cut ugly.

Crowds morphed into mobs targeting the police, the homes of political leaders

and government buildings.

As events unfolded, the chaos was streamed live online.

The police were overstretched.

Officers say the support promised by the armed police force and the Nepal army

never arrived.

At around 1 p.m., the police appeared to give up their attempt to control the mob.

With the police and retreat, chaos rained.

Nepal's parliament left undefended, fell to the crowd.

By 2 p.m., it was under their control.

Yesterday they killed students, Gen Z's.

Now you know what Gen Z's are capable of.

With in minutes, the building was set ablaze.

Crowds breached the Supreme Court.

And Singapore, the historic compound housing most government ministries.

By 2.30 p.m., the prime minister and most senior political figures were under army protection.

Senior police officers also took refuge in the military compound.

Ranked file officers left on the streets were now targets.

Some were stripped off their uniforms and publicly humiliated.

There's a video showing officers who were thrown into a river as a mob attacked them with stones.

One junior officer told us he fell led down by his commanders.

He spoke to us anonymously.

As juniors, we expected our seniors and chiefs to support us while we were under attack,

but we were abandoned.

We felt orphaned.

They failed to take the necessary actions.

They saved themselves, but they did not even update us on what to do or what was happening.

It's been widely alleged that thugs and infiltrators in the pay of political groups were behind

the violence. We can't rule that out, but we've found no concrete evidence.

Violence spread beyond Kathmandu, across the country.

Finally, in the early afternoon, prime minister Oli resigned.

Here is one of the key protesters again, Raksha.

For a moment, it felt like the country had finally returned to us.

We felt we had brought an arrogant government down to its knees.

Part of us rejoiced.

Another part ached with grief.

Chaos continued through the evening.

By nightfall, hundreds of buildings were burning.

Banks and armories looted.

More than 13,000 prisoners had broken free.

Three police officers had been killed, and at least 50 more Nepalese were dead.

At 9pm, the army finally stepped in.

The army's intervention brought an end to two days of chaos and bloodshed.

But many Nepalese felt they had left it too late.

Another police officer told us anonymously.

The Nepal army has many soldiers.

They didn't need to fire at people.

Just apply 100 or 150 troops to the main streets.

We could have avoided this huge national loss.

Instead, it feels like they came late to take the credit,

after the Nepal police took the brunt of everything.

It is now the morning of the third day, 10th of September.

On the Discord channel, there were now more than 100,000 people.

Just 48 hours earlier, they'd been planning a protest.

Now with the government opposed and the country in flames,

they were debating Nepal's future.

Let's be honest, we're immature and don't know anything about how a country

or an economy works.

The time for fighting is over.

Now is the time to unite, to rebuild and to dream bigger for our country.

Four days after the protests began, on September 12th,

Nepal got its new Interim Prime Minister, the first woman to run the country.

On the 5th of March this year, Prime Minister Karki completed

what was meant to be the defining mandate of our government, a national election.

The result was decisive.

A party backed largely by Gen Z voters, swept to power with an overwhelming majority.

But the election was only a part of the story.

Her second promise was more fraught, a commission to investigate the violence of September 8th and 9th.

The key figures in the chain of command from police chief Kapu Nona's Peter 1,

to the head of District Security Committee and the Minister for Home Affairs,

have each denied wrongdoing.

Former Prime Minister Kapu Sharma Oli has also insisted the blame does not lie with him.

Apparently, I have to be accountable.

Tell me, who in which country has taken such accountability?

Is the American President accountable when a man gets associated in a racial crime?

The commission said to investigate how the protests were handled has finished its work.

Its report runs to 900 pages and they have submitted it to the government.

And no one seems quite sure when it will finally be published.

We put our findings of our investigation to the Nepal police.

They told us,

we were faced with an overwhelming situation where we had to respond to multiple incidents simultaneously.

No senior officers abandoned the juniors and left them to fend for themselves.

The Nepal army told us,

the Nepal army acted with integrity and purity of intent

by objectively assessing a very chaotic, fluid,

and uncertain security situation.

After the army was deployed,

the situation was brought under control within hours.

A reporter asked Riem's dad, Ganesh.

30 million Nepalese know who the perpetrators are.

The former government presided over these events.

All those who led that government are responsible.

A Riem's home grief is hanging in the air.

This is Ganga Garki,

Riem's mum again.

My dreams are already shattered.

For them, it was just a student who died.

For us, the world we knew has fallen apart.

I've not been able to cry.

I want to talk to my son,

so I pretend he's here and I keep talking to him.

When will you be back?

Hurry up, I tell him.

In my mind, he's in his school uniform.

He'll return, swinging his bag.

I've not been able to accept these no longer here.

I had this dream.

I was spreading my arms to God, begging.

I kept holding him, asking him to come back.

I wish he would return.

That's all from this edition of Assignment and Me, Sabine Shrestha.

And to hear more stories, go to thebbcworldservice.com slash assignment.

So you're running out of closet space.

The good news?

You don't need to stop shopping.

You just need to start selling, with the real real.

The real real is the world's largest and most trusted resource for

authenticated luxury resale,

whether it's that mini bag that can't even fit your phone,

or those boots you never fully broke in.

The real real handles everything,

from photography and copywriting, to shipping and pricing.

So you can just sit back, get paid,

and make room for things that actually feel like you.

And with 10,000 plus new arrivals every single day,

from top designers like Prada,

Selene, Louis Vuitton, and L'Ave,

all for up to 90% off retail,

you're bound to find something perfectly on brand

to fill that extra closet space with.

Plus, right now, you can get an extra $100 to shop

when you sell for the first time.

Make room for what feels like you.

Go to therealreal.com to start selling,

and get your extra $100 to keep shopping,

at therealreal.com.

That's therealreal.com, Terms Apply.